Playing cards for card games are often stored in stacks. Both during the normal use of the cards and otherwise, a stack of cards may become disorganized. This is especially common for large quantities of cards, but may also occur for any quantity of cards in a stack.
When a stack becomes disorganized, the contents of a stack may be unknown or not accurately known. An individual interested in the contents of the stack often will work to identify all cards within the stack and reorganize the cards by some preferred order. This sort order is any method chosen by the individual to order the cards after the cards have been identified.
Identification and organization of a stack has been done largely by-hand to date, by manually identifying and then organizing cards. Collectively, identifying the cards in a stack and organizing the stack by the sort order is “sorting.” Sorting by humans is typically non-destructive, as human sorting involves essentially the same interaction with the cards during sorting as during play. Further, human sorting is subject to the recognition ability, memory and dexterity of the human to place the identified card in the correct location in the sorted stack, and other factors related to human involvement in sorting. Thus, human sorting presents multiple problems for sorting.
Sorting by robotic means, however, is more challenging to implement because of the greater potential for damage to the cards during sorting. If damaged, the cards may lose value or usability for play or sale if damaged. Damage comes in a variety of forms, but the distinguishing characteristic is typically wear on the cards which is greater than what would be created through play.
There are numerous automated solutions in similar industries which rapidly identify and sort. One such example is currency counters which use wheels to pull paper currency through a slot where the currency is identified sequentially. This solution has enormous potential to damage the cards because the solution was designed for paper currency which is routinely taken out of circulation and replaced. Though human sorting usually ensures the cards are not damaged, this is not guaranteed.
There exists a need for a system to automate sorting which minimizes human involvement, decreases the time to sort, and overall improves the accuracy of sorting.